1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to powered overhead garage doors, or similar electrically operated systems, and in particular to an electronic control device that will automatically reclose the garage door after the vehicle exits or enters the garage if safety conditions are met.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Powered overhead garage doors, equipped with an electric motor to open or close the door by radio control units (receiver and transmiter) or by pushbutton switch on the garage wall, have gained popularity over the past decade. While the system works quite satisfactorily for some time, there are problems of unintentional opening by stray radio signal or by electrical or electromagnetic irregularities. Problems occur probably more often when the driver simply forgets to depress the control button to close the garage door. And most people had the experience of wondering if they have left the garage door open when they left home and have driven back to make sure. Furthermore, after entering the garage, people with tight space in the garage often have to walk to the rear of the vehicle to make sure it clears the door before pushing the control button to close it.
Numerous U.S. patents have been issued in the subject of reclosing a garage door, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,939,434; 4,843,639; 4,463,292; 4,404,558; 4,364,003 and 4,035,702. These proposals attempt to reclose the garage door after it has been open for a selected time interval or according to some switch signals without safety precautions.